Day at the Beach?

The beach was rather deserted, so it was the perfect time for Frank and Rhonda to act. They hadn't meant to kill Vic. They had only intended to rob him. But when Vic caught them and started to call the police, Frank panicked. He had never shot a gun, so when the bullet went through Vic's back and pierced his heart, killing him instantly, Frank was pleasantly surprised.

He looked over at Rhonda, his eyes shining with delight. "Did you see that? Just like in the..."

"You idiot! You just killed a man! The man I loved." Rhona burst into tears. "What are we going to do now?""

Frank's elation quickly gave way to fear at the stark realization of what he had just done. He sank to the couch. After minutes spent staring at the body and pool of blood on the floor, Frank spoke first.

"Rhon, you're the brains of this operation. You gotta fix this."

"Fix it?! You want me to fix it? He's DEAD!! How the hell do you propose I fix that?!?" Rhonda pointed to Vic's dead body.

Frank put his head in his hands and sat there a few minutes. Finally, he jumped to his feet, startling Rhonda in the process. "I've got a plan..."

*****

Ironically, the duo met at a police station only a few weeks earlier. Frank was there delivering a pizza, and Rhonda was there trying to argue her way out of a recent speeding ticket.

"I'm telling ya, lady. There's nothing I can do. You're in the wrong place." The overweight cop was getting impatient with Rhonda. She looked over when Frank deposited the pizza box on the counter, and the officer used the distraction to flurry quickly away.

Rhonda glared at Frank. He flashed her an innocent smile. "Don't blame me, mam. I'm just doin' my job." Wordlessly, Rhonda dropped her head and started for the door.

"Wait!" Frank hurried after her, clutching a wad of bills in his hand. Was this stranger going to pay her ticket? Maybe Rhonda's luck had finally changed.

"Say, aren't you Victor Ramone's girl? Why would you be worried about paying a measly parking ticket?" Frank stuffed the wad of bills, evidently the money he had gotten for the pizza, into his pocket as he walked.

The mention of Vic's name caused Rhonda to cringe. If she hadn't caught him cheating on her, she wouldn't have stormed out of his house and gotten pulled over for speeding on her way home. Nor would she be here now.

"I'm no longer with Victor. And I don't think I know you..."

"Probably not. I recognized you from all the pictures I have seen of the two of you in the society pages."

Vic was the governor's son, and his family was loaded. He had the charisma and good looks to complete the package. And at the moment, Rhonda hated him.

"Oh. Well, you won't be seeing any more of them." She couldn't stop the tears from pooling in her eyes.

"I know this is too forward, but I just have to make a stop back at work, and then maybe we could go somewhere and talk..."

"I'll follow you," Rhonda replied without a second thought.

Over the course of the next few hours, they became quick friends. Rhonda learned that Frank was an aspiring artist, but he didn't have enough time to pursue his dream, because he worked two jobs to pay his rent. His last girlfriend had left him a few months earlier, taking all of the money in his bank account with her. Rhonda told him about her dead end job as a receptionist and the fear that she wouldn't be able to pay the speeding ticket, much less her apartment rent, without Vic's contribution.

By the end of the night, they had devised a plan to break into Vic's house and steal the money
that Rhonda had seen him hide in books in his study. A few weeks later, they executed their plan.

*****

After what seemed like hours of searching, Frank and Rhonda had finally found a bag in the attached garage that was big enough to hold Vic's body. The bag resembled a huge trash bag, and Rhonda was sure it wouldn't be strong enough, but she agreed that they had no choice. They wrapped the body in a red silk sheet that Rhonda remembered all too fondly and managed to get it into the bag. Finally, they emptied the trashcan into the bag to make it appear that it was full of trash. After carrying the bag around the house a few times to get used to the weight and ensure it would hold up, they headed out the door.

Rhonda hadn't thought Frank's idea to carry the body to a secluded area of the beach was such a good one, but, in her hysteria, she could come up with nothing better. Frank assured her that he had discovered a deep hole that would most definitely hide a body when he had taken a previous girlfriend there to "talk." Now, all they had to do was make it to that area.

"We're almost there," Frank assured when he noticed that Rhonda was losing steam.

Rhonda didn't hear him. "Who is that?" She looked toward the man headed in their direction. Frank didn't bother answering because, by then, it was obvious it was a policeman. They had nowhere to hide. "Don't say a word," he whispered.

The policeman smiled at them. "What a noble thing to do! I rarely see folks take it upon themselves to keep this beach clean. If only there were more people like you..."

He kept talking as Frank and Rhonda hurried on. When they were out of earshot, Frank chuckled. "Man, that was close! This isn't as hard as I thought it would be."

"Yeah, and let's not worry about a cop seeing us carrying this bag," Rhonda replied sarcastically. "If the body is ever found, that cop will remember..."

"FREEZE!" The pair stopped in their tracks. Frank turned his head slightly to see the trail of blood in the sand behind them. As they were handcuffed, he turned to Rhonda. "Looks like he would have bought reinforced trash bags with his kind of money."